Brad Cummings | Republicans must have alternative to Obamacare

Aug. 21, 2013

Written by

Brad Cummings

Newt Gingrich is as complicated a political figure as there has been on the American political scene during my adult life. One part brilliant policy wonk, one part immoral family man, and one part undisciplined yet largely effective communicator, the former House speaker and presidential candidate has an intellect that makes him worth listening to even if he jumps off the rails from time to time. (His plan to make underprivileged kids janitors at their own schools is still a head-scratcher to me.)

Speaking to a group of state party chairs, activists, and political operatives at the Republican National Committee summer meeting, Gingrich tapped into good Newt, preaching the need for more effective communication regarding their Obamacare strategies.

“I would bet for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks while your members of Congress are home and you look at them in the eye and you say, ‘What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?’ and they will have zero answer,” said Gingrich. “We are caught up right now in a culture — and you see it every single day — where as long as we are negative, as long as we are vicious, as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to worry, so we don’t.”

As usual, Speaker Gingrich has overstated his case. Of course, Republicans have alternatives to Obamacare. There are many counter proposals on the table or being talked about in think-tanks across the country. But Gingrich is trying to communicate a different message.

Alternatives are great in theory but where are the concerted efforts by Republicans to put together a comprehensive health care plan that can be implemented tomorrow? Where is the plan, spelled out and contrastable to the current monstrosity that keeps being delayed due to poor planning and gaps in policy logic?

The Democrats have it much easier in this debate. Their argument goes something like this: Everyone should be given affordable health care options because health care is a basic right. And because of this inalienable right, anyone who opposes Obamacare has disdain for the poor and underprivileged.

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They’ve been pretty successful framing the debate in these terms and it partly falls on the GOP’s shoulders for not providing a clear alternative.

That’s not to say there aren’t voices in the GOP who have laid out conservative visions for health care. There are plenty of ways to go about handling this complicated issue. Selling insurance across state lines, in-depth tort reform and high-risk pools managed by state governments for those with pre-existing conditions are all ideas that merit real consideration.

But where is the united effort to steer the health care debate into the “right” direction? (Sorry, I have a weakness for bad puns.) The president’s plan has certainly opened up doors for counter debate considering the long delays due to the way his not-based-in-reality plan was developed and implemented.

Republicans all along said Obamacare would encourage employers to manipulate the amount of hours they give their employees so they wouldn’t have to pay into the more expensive mandated plans. And that this would eventually lead to a single-payer system. Forever 21 just announced they are getting rid of full-time, non-management employees. And as they say, as Forever 21 goes, so does the country ...

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., showed his single-payer hand recently. “What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” said Reid during an appearance on “Nevada Week in Review.” When asked if he believed Obamacare would lead to the elements necessary for a single-payer health care plan, Reid responded, “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Yet Republicans have been unable to penetrate with a lasting counterargument and it’s easy to see why. Name the Republican alternative. Give me the “elevator speech” version of the plan. What do we hope to accomplish through health care reform? Sadly, there are no fully developed answers for these challenges.

The Democratic plan for health care reform is in reality a complete mess ignoring the beauties of the free-market system we all enjoy. But it’s easy to communicate and even easier to make boogeymen out of its opponents.

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“I think the really interesting question is why it is that my friends in the other party have made the idea of preventing these people from getting health care their Holy Grail,” said President Obama in a recent speech. “The one unifying principle in the Republican Party at the moment is making sure that 30 million people don’t have health care and repealing all those benefits.”

That’s offensive. No Republican is thinking about how to make sure 30 million people don’t have health care. The president should be ashamed of these remarks. But the core issue is that Republicans have brought this warfare upon themselves by not articulating an easy-to-digest alternative that is provably better than what is currently law. And seriously, this shouldn’t be hard to do.

The RNC in concert with key GOP leaders need to come together for a cohesive plan to improve our health care, one with consistent talking points that combat the feel-good tone of the Democratic plan, which while grandiose in vision, is short on reality. It’s perfectly fine to point out the crumbling tower that is Obamacare, but without a solid, consistent counter solution, the voting public will likely tune us out.

Time is running out. If there isn’t a major change in the upcoming elections, it’s likely we are all strapped to this Titanic of a health care bill. A united front and cohesive message is necessary to combat the misleading albeit easy-to-sell Affordable Care Act.

Brad Cummings is COO of PM Advertising, and he previously served as Jefferson County Republican Party chairman. His column appears every third Wednesday. He can be reached at bradford.cummings@gmail.com